When I was in Grantsville Grade School, we were getting our pictures taken. This eighth grader was in the restroom while I was. He looked at me and said. “Kid, if you are going to have your picture taken, you’re going to have to comb your hair.”

Using his own comb he combed my hair.

You should have seen my mother’s face when I took those pictures home. It is still my favorite school picture. And the person who combed my hair became my hero. His name was Glen Virgil Fowler.

Glen was in high school the same time as my oldest sister. My parents would take her to football and basketball games. I would tag along.

Glen was on both the football team and the basketball team. I thought he was the greatest. I said to myself when I grow-up I want to be just like Glen Fowler.

Glen graduated from Calhoun High School and I did not hear about him for some time. I heard he was in Bethany College. Then on 7 December 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

I was still a little boy, a fifth grader, in Grantsville Grade School. I heard that Glen Fowler had joined the Navy and was a pilot. I remember telling a friend. “This war can’t last long. Glen Fowler is in it.”

I realize now that these were the thoughts of an elementary school student. But I must admit that as an adult when Tom Brokaw coined the phrase: “The Greatest Generation.” My thoughts were: “Glen Virgil Fowler is in it.”

I am now 86 years old and I hope you have a hero like mine to look-up to. Glen, you will live forever in the mind of this old fellow.